A Field Guide to Ponchos

Ponchos are everywhere right now. Here in Oregon it’s still warm enough to be poncho weather. I’m sure we will move on to bitterly damp soon enough, but in the meantime I’ve been daydreaming about knitting up a good poncho. Rachel has even said to me, “Sal, there is no good reason for you not to have a poncho.”

So I’ve been looking in my back issues of Vogue Knitting, and on Ravelry, and it’s true, there are a million poncho patterns out there. OR ARE THERE?

When I was a very small child in the 70’s, my mom and I had matching ponchos, that were handwoven! for us by a family friend of my grandmother’s. They were bluish, with mauve-y pink plaid, and I believe mohair because of the general hairy-ness of them. Then my cat got sick on my poncho, and that was the end of that. Cats are the worst.

So your basic vintage poncho is a bias-draped afghan with a hole cut in the center:

Afghan ponchos

Now let’s look at the modern take on this.

VK Winter 2011/12

VK Holiday 2010

VK Holiday 2011

VK Winter 2011/12

Hey modern poncho, I get you. You’re a blanket that’s been folded in half with a neck hole added in. BIAS DRAPING IS SO LAST CENTURY !

But there are also some articles of clothing that are masquerading as ponchos:

VK Spring/Summer 2011

Nope. This is a caftan. Note the deep v-neck: this is not a repurposed blanket.

VK Winter2011/12

Tres chic! But not a poncho. The button-up front indicates that this is a cape.

Pickles pattern

Rachel sent me this pattern. I love the geometric detail, but this is the worst offender as far as non-ponchos go: those sleeves someone added in mean this is clearly, NOT A PONCHO. This is unfortunately a very weird dolman sleeved…sweater. I have issues with sleeve fit in knitted garments. Ponchos bypass this by having no sleeves.

I hope this helps.

Un-ironic Holiday Sweater, Part 3

 Sally Williams

 Blog, Uncategorized

“Buck” from Classic Elite Yarns

This is going to be my second holiday sweater. Two features have really drawn me to this sweater: one, the colorblocking, which will visually make the sweater look smaller even though it’s oversized, and two, the prancing deer motif, which gives the sweater a lot more movement than the traditional standing deer fair-isle motif. It’s active and sporty in appearance, while also being big and cuddly. That’s a lot to pack into one garment!

I have some taupe commercially made yarn from Araucania for the lighter part of the body, and I wanted to create some forest colored hand-spun for the darker parts. There is a lot of forest here in Oregon, and I wanted to really do justice to the depth of color and variety in conifers that we have around here.

Blue Spruce

This is a blue spruce that’s growing in front of our house. The new growth is a beautiful sage-y blue green, and the older growth is more of a yellow green. The Douglas firs around our house are more of a cyan, and there is a dramatic difference in shade between where the sun strikes the needles and the ones in shadow. I ended up blending five distinct color ways, and then blending those color ways further to create this yarn. I ended up deciding on a fat two-ply to match the weight of my commercial yarn, rather than a three-ply, because I wanted to leave enough variation in color once it was knit up.

Handspun two-ply

Here is my swatch. The commercial yarn has some striation to it, which goes really well with my handspun, and also has some pink undertones to it, which compliments the greens nicely.

Swatchy goodness

It’s being knit on #9 US needles, so it’s coming along quickly. I’m debating on whether or not to add some knit-in pockets. I think what I love most about this project is that it’s a representation of the trees in my neighborhood, in the summer, when it was pretty hot out, and I’ll be able to keep a little bit of that summertime feel with me once winter comes. It’s a little put-up job, like a jar of pickles or some jam.

View of summer from our screened-in porch

Un-Ironic Holiday Sweater, Part 2

 Sally Williams

 Blog

I’ve made a decision as to which holiday sweater I’m going to attempt to actually get done in time for the holidays:

“Buck” from Classic Elite Yarns

Loopy-trimmed cardi

Thats right, I seem to think I can pull both of these off by December. Hahahahahahaha! But if I start now, it’s certainly more likely. I’ll be addressing the Loopy Trimmed Cardigan first.

This pattern is from Vogue Knitting, which I have a subscription to, so I already have the pattern. One annoying thing about Vogue patterns is that they have a lot of errata, so I always check Ravlery before I start and see what the issues are. This one looks pretty straightforward, and the photos posted of finished projects all look great. One thing that was mentioned a couple of times is that the button closures don’t really hold the front closed all that well. One person mitigated this by seaming the front shut and turning it into a pullover. After looking at the photo in my magazine copy, I can see that there’s a straight pin holding the front shut in between buttons on the model. Really! I’m more surprised by the lack of photoshopping than anything. My solution is going make five buttonholes instead of three.

I looked around in my stash to see what I wanted to use for the body and the trim, and I found some navy dk weight Rowan merino/cotton that I *think* I have enough of for the body. It’s a little bit matte because of the cotton, but the stitch definition will be really great for showing off the cables and bobbles. I didn’t have a good coordinating colored yarn for the loopy trim, but, I have a lot of fiber, so I can certainly make some up.

Fiber for blending

My navy yarn changes color depending on what else you put next to it. Navy next to navy, purple next to purple. So I got my drum carder out and started blending.

Blended batts

I’ve some navy Shetland and mohair (from my goat, Blue) that I dyed, some violet Shetland/Cheviot that I bought from a lady in my Guild, some Prussian blue Shetland that I also dyed, and a couple of small batts I made up from some teal/brown/navy Polworth/silk blend that I bought at OFFF last fall. I ended up with the navy/purple color way of the commercial yarn, and analogous royal and teal blend color ways to add some variety. Holiday oomph, if you will.

So then my only question is how do I want to spin this up?

Handspun swatches

I did three swatches. The first one started out as a single, but I didn’t like how much color separation there was next to the commercial yarn, so I plied it on itself to see if that helped. That’s the center one in the photo. So I blended my batts together some more, and did a single to match the dk weight yarn, and a two ply, to see which I liked better knitted up in the loopy pattern.

Loopy knit swatch

The single really does it for me. It’s almost like an exaggerated boucle, especially with the mohair halo that it has. The rest of the fiber is spun up and set, about four oz.

Yarn for loops

All that’s left to do is cast on!

Up next: decisions about the Buck cardigan.

Guild Dye Day

 Sally Williams

 Blog, Uncategorized

The Aurora Colony Handspinner’s Guild had it’s annual Dye Day recently at the Historical Museum in Aurora, Oregon, and I spent the day spinning, observing, and taking a couple of interesting seminars about hand painting yarn and roving, and different ways to spin up said roving. There were lots and lots of kettles going over portable stoves. There was some beautiful kettle dyed fleece:

Kettle dyed fleece

Kettle dyed fleece, hand painted roving heating in the sun

There was some beautiful kettle dyed hand spun and roving:

Kettle dyed handspun

Kettle dyed roving and handspun

Even some dyed sparkly stuff:

Kettle dyed “Flash” aka Firestar

I found this to be a nifty idea: hanging smaller bits of fleece or roving to dry in up-cycled onion bags.

Drying fiber in onion bags

There was a demonstration of hand painted roving, using squeeze bottles to apply the dyes to fiber soaked in citric acid or vinegar, and wrapped in plastic to either sit in the sun or go into a steamer. The squeeze bottle recommendation is to source from beauty supply stores for better and more accurate dispensing. The tip on color placement is to keep the same order of color change all the way around the yarn or roving.

Handpainted scarves and roving heated in plastic wrap

There was a neat little seminar about spinning from hand painted roving. Chain, or Navajo plying was suggested as a way to maintain color order, which works especially well when doing an ombré effect. Fractal spinning was also suggested as a way to introduce color shifts when plying. This Knittyspin article is great for explaining fractal spinning: Fractal Spinning.

Finally, there were some samples of hand painted roving divided in half, and one half carded together to make a “neutral”, the other half spun as you normally would, and then these two color ways plyed together. The results of this last technique were pretty interesting, in that it didn’t seem to matter what the original colors were, the blended portion would always coordinate with the unblended portion, and even out and tone done what might otherwise be garish colors. This color way was muted to begin with, but the resulting yarn is quite sophisticated:

“Neutral” spinning and plying

It’s always great to get a bunch of people together who share your excitement about fiber. As soon as time permits, I’m going to try my hand at some hand painted roving and experiment with these spinning and plying techniques.

The Un-ironic Holiday Sweater

 Sally Williams

 Blog

I’ve been getting Knitting Daily in my inbox telling me that NOW is the time to start holiday knitting, along with patterns for hats, scarves, and other smallish items. I can probably knock out a decent hat or scarf in a few days, but if I want a festive holiday sweater, now is the time to start.

The Ugly Holiday Sweater Party is apparently a thing now, but if I’m going to bother to knit a whole sweater, I want to un-ironically like it, and feel good about running around in it for more than one garish night. Plus, the whole reason for the holidays is to celebrate the better parts of ourselves, and I tend to think that being cynical isn’t on the list. So here are a few starting ideas for what might make a pretty decent, festive, and snugly sweater:

“Buck” from Classic Elite Yarns

I saw this on a female model on the back cover of a Vogue Knitting magazine. It looked oversized and casual on her. I love the natural colored yarn, the shawl collar, and of course the chunky deer motifs. The colorblocking is interesting too, it makes the sweater look shorter than it is.

Fur trimmed hood! And certainly faux fur, sparkly eyelash, or mohair would also work. The fair isle motifs could be modified to be more obviously holiday themed, and several people on Ravelry have posted pictures of this with long sleeves. Plus, it zips! I love zippers.

Fur trimmed hoodie from Vogue Knitting Holiday ’09

These remind me of a vintage ski sweaters. The short sleeves make the upper one, I think, quite chic. The color palette could be changed around easily enough. The ski sweater with pompoms has some neat lacework, and I can see some possibilities with those pompoms.

Ski sweater with pompoms

Tied-with-a-bow sweater

I can see this not being everyone’s cup of tea with a bow at the bust line, but it is festive, and I love the funnel neck instead of a turtleneck, which always make me feel like a little stifled. The cranberry color is great, and would work for other festive occasions, like anniversaries or Valentine’s Day.

Crocheted snowflake top

I love this top. It’s texturally interesting, and a great layering piece. I’m a beginning crocheter, so this would be challenging for me, but I think it’s stunning.

Cables, bobbles, and loops, but still elegant. I love this cardigan, and it looks fun to knit. If I were to do it for a holiday sweater, I would pick a different color, with some sparkle in the trimmings.

Loopy-trimmed cardi

I’m imagining this in green with red trim. I think with the sophisticated pattern it would avoid being kitschy even in traditional “Christmas colors”.

Op-art cardi

I’m going to mull these examples over for a bit and see where I end up. Stay tuned…